CECS-PHY-15/03
Asymptotically flat structure of hypergravity in three spacetime dimensions
Oscar Fuentealba,a,b Javier Matulich,a Ricardo Troncoso,a aCentro de Estudios Científicos (CECs), Av. Arturo Prat 514, Valdivia, Chile. bDepartamento de Física, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract: The asymptotic structure of three-dimensional hypergravity without cosmo- logical constant is analyzed. In the case of gravity minimally coupled to a spin-5/2 field, a consistent set of boundary conditions is proposed, being wide enough so as to accommo- date a generic choice of chemical potentials associated to the global charges. The algebra of the canonical generators of the asymptotic symmetries is given by a hypersymmetric nonlinear extension of BMS3. It is shown that the asymptotic symmetry algebra can be recovered from a subset of a suitable limit of the direct sum of the W(2,4) algebra with its hypersymmetric extension. The presence of hypersymmetry generators allows to construct bounds for the energy, which turn out to be nonlinear and saturate for spacetimes that admit globally-defined “Killing vector-spinors”. The null orbifold or Minkowski spacetime can then be seen as the corresponding ground state in the case of fermions that fulfill pe- riodic or antiperiodic boundary conditions, respectively. The hypergravity theory is also explicitly extended so as to admit parity-odd terms in the action. It is then shown that the asymptotic symmetry algebra includes an additional central charge, being proportional to the coupling of the Lorentz-Chern-Simons form. The generalization of these results in the case of gravity minimally coupled to arbitrary half-integer spin fields is also carried out. 1 The hypersymmetry bounds are found to be given by a suitable polynomial of degree s + 2 arXiv:1508.04663v2 [hep-th] 4 Nov 2015 in the energy, where s is the spin of the fermionic generators. Contents
1 Introduction1
2 General Relativity minimally coupled to a spin-5/2 field2
3 Unbroken hypersymmetries: Killing vector-spinors4 3.1 Cosmological spacetimes and solutions with conical defects4
4 Asymptotically flat behaviour and the hyper-BMS3 algebra6 4.1 Flat limit of the asymptotic symmetry algebra from the case of negative cosmological constant 10
5 Hypersymmetry bounds 12
6 Hypergravity reloaded 13
7 General Relativity minimally coupled to half-integer spin fields 15 7.1 Killing tensor-spinors 16 7.2 Asymptotically flat structure and hypersymmetry bounds 17
8 Final remarks 20
A Conventions 24
B Killing vector-spinors from an alternative approach 24
1 C Hyper-Poincaré algebra with fermionic generators of spin n + 2 26
D Asymptotic hypersymmetry algebra 26 D.1 Spin-3/2 fields (supergravity) 26 D.2 Spin-7/2 fields 27 D.3 Spin-9/2 fields 29
1 Introduction
It has been shown that the inconsistencies arising in the minimal coupling of a mass- less spin-5/2 field to General Relativity [1], [2], [3], [4] can be successfully surmounted in three-dimensional spacetimes [5]. This theory is known as hypergravity, and it has been recently reformulated as a Chern-Simons theory of a new extension of the Poincaré group with fermionic generators of spin 3/2 [6]. In the case of negative cosmological constant, additional spin-4 fields are required by consistency [7], [8], [9], and it can be seen that
– 1 – the anticommutator of the generators of the asymptotic hypersymmetries, associated to fermionic spin-3/2 parameters, leads to interesting nonlinear bounds for the bosonic global charges of spin 2 and 4 [9]. The bounds saturate provided the bosonic configurations ad- mit globally-defined “Killing vector-spinors”. One of the main purposes of this paper is to show how these results extend to the case of asymptotically flat spacetimes in hypergravity, also in the case of arbitrary half-integer spin fields. In the next section we briefly sum- marize the formulation of hypergravity as a Chern-Simons theory for the hyper-Poincaré group in the simplest case of fermionic spin-5/2 fields, while section3 is devoted to explore the global hypersymmetry properties of cosmological spacetimes and solutions with coni- cal defects. In the case of fermions that fulfill periodic boundary conditions, it is shown that the null orbifold possesses a single constant Killing vector-spinor. Analogously, for antiperiodic boundary conditions, Minkowski spacetime is singled out as the maximally (hyper)symmetric configuration, and the explicit expression of the globally-defined Killing vector-spinors is found. The asymptotically flat structure of hypergravity in three space- time dimensions is analyzed in section4, where a precise set of boundary conditions that includes “chemical potentials” associated to the global charges is proposed. The algebra of the canonical generators of the asymptotic symmetries is found to be given by a suitable hypersymmetric nonlinear extension of the BMS3 algebra. It is also shown that this alge- bra corresponds to a subset of a suitable Inönü-Wigner contraction of the direct sum of the W(2,4) algebra with its hypersymmetric extension W 5 . The hypersymmetry bounds (2, 2 ,4) that arise from the anticommutator of the fermionic generators are found to be nonlinear, and are shown to saturate for spacetimes that admit unbroken hypersymmetries, like the ones aforementioned. This is explicitly carried out in section5. In section6, the previous analysis is performed in the case of an extension of the hypergravity theory that includes additional parity-odd terms in the action. It is found that the asymptotic symmetry alge- bra admits an additional central charge along the Virasoro subgroup. The results are then extended to the case of General Relativity minimally coupled to half-integer spin fields in section7, including the asymptotically flat structure, and the explicit expression of the Killing tensor-spinors. The hypersymmetry bounds are shown to be described by a poly- nomial of degree s + 1/2 in the energy, where s is the spin of the fermionic generators. We conclude in section8 with some final remarks, including the extension of these results to the case of hypergravity with additional parity-odd terms and fermions of arbitrary half-integer spin. The coupling of additional spin-4 fields is also addressed. AppendixA is devoted to our conventions, and in appendixB, an alternative interesting form to obtain the explicit form of the Killing vector-spinors is presented. The general form of the hyper-Poincaré algebra is discussed in appendixC, while appendixD includes the asymptotic hypersym- metry algebra in the case of fermionic fields of spin 3/2 (supergravity), as well as for fields of spin 7/2 and 9/2.
2 General Relativity minimally coupled to a spin-5/2 field
It has been recently shown that the hypergravity theory of Aragone and Deser [5] can be reformulated as a gauge theory of a suitable extension of the Poincaré group with fermionic
– 2 – spin-3/2 generators [6]. The action is described by a Chern-Simons form, so that the dreibein, the (dualized) spin connection, and the spin-5/2 field correspond to the compo- nents of a gauge field given by
a a α a A = e Pa + ω Ja + ψa Qα , (2.1)
a that takes values in the hyper-Poincaré algebra, being spanned by the set {Pa,Ja,Qα}. a The fermionic fields and generators are assumed to be Γ-traceless, i. e., Γ ψa = 0, and a Q Γa = 0, so that the nonvanishing (anti)commutation rules read
c c [Ja,Jb] = εabcJ , [Ja,Pb] = εabcP ,
1 β c [Ja,Qαb] = (Γa) Qβb + εabcQ , (2.2) 2 α α n o 2 5 1 Qa ,Qb = − (CΓc) P ηab + εabcC P + (CΓ(a) P b) , α β 3 αβ c 6 αβ c 6 αβ where C stands for the charge conjugation matrix. The Majorana conjugate then reads ¯ β ψαa = ψa Cβα. Since the algebra admits an invariant bilinear form, whose only nonvanishing components are given by
D a b E 2 ab 1 abc hJa,Pbi = ηab , Q ,Q = Cαβη − ε (CΓc)αβ , (2.3) α β 3 3 the action can be written as k 2 I [A] = AdA + A3 , (2.4) 4π ˆ 3 which up to a surface term reduces to
k a ¯ a I = 2R ea + iψaDψ . (2.5) 4π ˆ
a a 1 abc Here R = dω + 2 ε ωbωc is the dual of the curvature two-form, and since the fermionic field is Γ-traceless, its Lorentz covariant derivative fulfills 1 Dψa = dψa + ωbΓ ψa + εabcω ψ 2 b b c a 3 b a a b = dψ + ω Γbψ − ωbΓ ψ . (2.6) 2 The field equations are then given by F = dA + A2 = 0, whose components read
a a 3 ¯ a b a R = 0 ,T = iψbΓ ψ , Dψ = 0 , (2.7) 4 where T a = Dea corresponds to the torsion two-form. Therefore, by construction, the action changes by a boundary term under local hy- α a persymmetry transformations spanned by δA = dA + [A, λ], with λ = a Qα, so that the transformation law of the fields reduces to
a 3 a b a a a δe = i¯bΓ ψ , δω = 0 , δψ = D . (2.8) 2 Note that the transformation rules of the fields in [5] agree with the ones in (2.8), on-shell.
– 3 – 3 Unbroken hypersymmetries: Killing vector-spinors
It is interesting to explore the set of bosonic solutions that possess unbroken global hy- persymmetries. According to the transformation rules of the fields in (2.8), this class of configurations has to fulfill the following Killing vector-spinor equation:
a 1 b a abc d + ω Γb + ε ωbc = 0 , (3.1) 2 where the spin-3/2 parameter a is Γ-traceless. As it follows from the field equations (2.7), the spin connection is locally flat, and it a a −1 λ Ja can then be written as ω = ω Ja = g dg, with g = e . Therefore, the general solution of the Killing vector-spinor equation (3.1) is given by
α −1α b β a = gS β (gV )a ηb , (3.2)
β where ηb is a Γ-traceless constant vector-spinor. Here, gS and gV stand for the same group element g, but expressed in the spinor and the vector (adjoint) representations, respectively. Since the generators of the Lorentz group in the spinor and vector representations are given α 1 α by (Ja)β = 2 (Γa)β , and (Ja)bc = −εabc, they explicitly read α 1 a α a (gS) = exp λ (Γa) , (gV ) = exp [−λ εabc] . (3.3) β 2 β bc
Hence, bosonic configurations that admit unbroken hypersymmetries possess Killing vector-spinors of the form (3.2) provided they are globally well-defined, either for periodic or antiperiodic boundary conditions.
3.1 Cosmological spacetimes and solutions with conical defects
Let us focus on an interesting class of circularly symmetric solutions that describe cos- mological spacetimes as well as configurations with conical defects. The latter class was introduced in [10], [11] while the former one was explored in [12], [13], [14]. The thermo- dynamic properties of cosmological spacetimes have been analyzed in [15], [16], [17], [18]. As explained in [19], [20], [9], it is useful to express the solution for a fixed range of the coordinates, so that the Hawking temperature and the chemical potential for the angular momentum manifestly appear in the metric. Hereafter we follow the conventions of [18], and for latter purposes, it is convenient to write the line element in outgoing null coordinates, which reads
2 2 2 4π πJ 2 2 2 2πµP J ds = − − P µ du − 2µP dudr + r dφ + µJ + du . (3.4) k kr2 P kr2
Here P determines the mass, whose associated “chemical potential” relates to the inverse −1 Hawking temperature according to µP = −β . Analogously, µJ stands for the chemical potential associated to the angular momentum J . We also assume a non-diagonal form for
– 4 – the Minkowski metric in a local frame, so that its nonvanishing components are given by η01 = η10 = η22 = 1. The dreibein can then be chosen as 2πµ P 2πJ e0 = −dr + P du + (dφ + µ du) , e1 = µ du , e2 = r (dφ + µ du) , k k J P J (3.5) and hence, the components of the dualized spin connection are given by
0 2πP 1 2 ω = (dφ + µJ du) , ω = dφ + µJ du , ω = 0 . (3.6) k As explained at the beginning of section3, since the curvature two-form vanishes, the spin connection (3.6) is locally flat, and it can then be generically written as ω = g−1dg, with 2πP ˆ g = exp J1 + J0 φ , (3.7) k
ˆ and φ = φ + µJ u. Note that in the case of P 6= 0, for the spinor and vector representations, the group element g in (3.7) exponentiates as
"r # r "r # πP ˆ k πP ˆ 2πP gS = cosh φ 2×2 + sinh φ J1 + J0 , (3.8) k I πP k k
r " r # "r #2 2 1 k πP 2πP k πP 2πP g = + sinh 2 φˆ J + J + sinh φˆ J + J , V I3×3 2 πP k 1 k 0 2πP k 1 k 0 (3.9) respectively, while for P = 0, it reduces to
ˆ ˆ 1 ˆ2 2 gS = 2×2 + φJ1 , gV = 3×3 + φJ1 + φ J . (3.10) I I 2 1 One then concludes that cosmological spacetimes, for which P > 0, necessarily break all the hypersymmetries. Indeed, this class of solutions cannot admit globally-defined Killing vector-spinors because, according to (3.8) and (3.9), the (anti)periodic boundary conditions for the vector-spinor a in (3.2) fail to be fulfilled. In the case of configurations with P = 0, equations (3.2) and (3.10) imply that the Killing vector-spinor is constant and satisfies: 3 Γ1a − Γa1 = 0 , (3.11) 2 so that it fulfills periodic boundary conditions, and possesses a single nonvanishing compo- − − nent given by 0 = η0 . For the remaining case, P := −kj2/π < 0, describing solutions with conical defects, the group element in both representations reduces to
h ˆi 1 h ˆi 2 gS = cos jφ 2×2 + sin jφ J1 − 2j J0 , (3.12) I j
– 5 – 2 1 h ˆi 2 1 h ˆi 2 2 gV = 3×3 + sin 2jφ J1 − 2j J0 + sin jφ J1 − 2j J0 . (3.13) I 2j 2j2
Therefore, this class of configurations possesses four independent Killing vector-spinors that fulfill (anti)periodic boundary conditions provided j is a (half-)integer. The explicit form of the Killing vector-spinors is then obtained from (3.2), where gS and gV are given by eqs. (3.12) and (3.13). Note that this is the maximum number of hypersymmetries. Indeed, for these configurations the holonomy of the spin connection becomes trivial, which −1 ˆ ˆ in the spinor representation means that gS (φ)gS(φ + 2π) = −I2×2, while in the vector −1 ˆ ˆ representation the condition reads gV (φ)gV (φ + 2π) = I3×3. It is worth pointing out that if j were different from a (half-)integer, the configurations would not solve the field equations in vacuum. This is because they would possess a conical singularity at the origin, and hence they should necessarily be supported by an external source. As it occurs in the case of supersymmetry, it is natural to expect that the bosonic global charges fulfill suitable bounds that turn out to be saturated for configurations that possess unbroken hypersymmetries. Indeed, as shown in [21], the bounds that correspond to three-dimensional supergravity with asymptotically flat boundary conditions certainly do so. Actually, the bounds also exclude conical surplus solutions, in particular those whose angular coordinate ranges from zero to 4πj, with j > 1/2, despite they are maximally supersymmetric. When a negative cosmological constant is considered, this is also the case not only for supergravity [22], but also for hypergravity [9], where in the latter case the bounds turn out to be nonlinear. Thus, one of the main purposes of the following sections is showing how these results can be extended to the case of hypergravity endowed with a suitable set of asymptotically flat boundary conditions, as well as how to recover them in the vanishing cosmological constant limit.
4 Asymptotically flat behaviour and the hyper-BMS3 algebra
Let us introduce a suitable set of asymptotic conditions that allows to describe the dynamics of asymptotically flat spacetimes in hypergravity. The set must be relaxed enough so as to accommodate the solutions of interest that have been described in section 3.1, and simultaneously, restricted in an appropriate way in order to ensure finiteness of the canonical generators associated to the asymptotic symmetries. In the case of pure General Relativity, a consistent set of boundary conditions indeed exists, whose asymptotic symmetry algebra corresponds to BMS3 with a nontrivial central extension [23], [24], [25]. These results have been extended to the case of supergravity [21], as well as for General Relativity coupled to higher spin fields [26], [27], [17], [18]. In order to carry out this task in hypergravity, we take advantage of the Chern-Simons formulation of the theory, depicted in section2. Since the hypersymmetry generators are Γ−traceless, it is useful to get rid of Q2 = Q1Γ0 − Q0Γ1,
– 6 – so that once the remaining generators are relabeled according to
Jˆ−1 = −2J0 , Jˆ1 = J1 , Jˆ0 = J2 ,
Pˆ−1 = −2P0 , Pˆ1 = P1 , Pˆ0 = P2 , 5 √ 3 √ ˆ 4 ˆ 4 Q− 3 = 2 3Q+0 , Q− 1 = 2 3Q−0 , (4.1) 2 √ 2 √ 1 − 1 Qˆ 1 = −2 4 3Q+1 , Qˆ 3 = −2 4 3Q−1 , 2 2 the hyper-Poincaré algebra (2.2) reads
h i Jˆm, Jˆn = (m − n) Jˆm+n , h i Jˆm, Pˆn = (m − n) Pˆm+n , h i 3m Jˆm, Qˆp = − p Qˆm+p , (4.2) 2 n o 1 Qˆ , Qˆ = 6p2 − 8pq + 6q2 − 9 Pˆ , p q 4 p+q
1 3 with m, n = ±1, 0, and p, q = ± 2 , ± 2 . Thus, following the lines of [28], and as explained in [21], [27], the radial dependence of the asymptotic form of the gauge field can be gauged away by a suitable group element r Pˆ of the form h = e 2 −1 , so that
A = h−1ah + h−1dh , (4.3) and hence, the remaining analysis can be entirely performed in terms of the connection a = audu + aφdφ, that depends only on time and the angular coordinate. As explained in [19], [20], one starts prescribing the asymptotic form of the dynamical gauge field at a fixed time slice with u = u0, so that the asymptotic fall-off of aφ is assumed to be such that the deviations with respect to the reference background go along the highest weight generators of (4.2). Choosing the reference background to be given by the null orbifold [29], that corresponds to the configuration in (3.4) with J = P = 0, the asymptotic form of the dynamical field reads
ˆ π ˆ ˆ ψ ˆ aφ = J1 − J P−1 + PJ−1 − Q− 3 , (4.4) k 3 2 where J , P and ψ stand for arbitrary functions of u, φ. The asymptotic symmetries then correspond to gauge transformations δa = dλ + [a, λ] that preserve the form of (4.4). Therefore, the hyper-Poincaré-valued parameter λ is found to depend on three arbitrary functions of u and φ, so that
ˆ ˆ ˆ λ = T P1 + Y J1 + EQ 3 + η 3 [T,Y, E] , (4.5) 2 ( 2 )
– 7 – where E is Grassmann-valued, and 0 ˆ 0 ˆ 0 ˆ 1 2π 00 ˆ η 3 [T,Y, E] = −T P0 − Y J0 − E Q 1 − Y P − Y J−1 ( 2 ) 2 2 k π 3 k 00 ˆ 1 3π 00 ˆ − T P + Y J − iψE − T P−1 − EP − E Q− 1 k 2 2π 2 k 2 π 7 0 3 0 k 000 ˆ − Y ψ − E P − EP + E Q− 3 ; (4.6) 3k 2 2 2π 2 while the transformation law of the fields reads k δP = 2PY 0 + P0Y − Y 000 , 2π k 5 3 δJ = 2J Y 0 + J 0Y + 2PT 0 + P0T − T 000 + iψE0 + iψ0E , (4.7) 2π 2 2 5 9π 3 k δψ = ψY 0 + ψ0Y − P2E + P00E + 5P0E0 + 5PE00 − E0000 . 2 2k 2 2π
Hereafter, prime stands for ∂φ. Since the time evolution of aφ corresponds to a gauge transformation parametrized by the Lagrange multiplier au, its asymptotic form will be maintained along different time slices provided au is of the allowed form, i. e.,
au = λ [µP , µJ , µψ] , (4.8) where the chemical potentials µP , µJ , µψ stand for arbitrary functions of u, φ, that are assumed to be fixed at the boundary. Consistency then demands that the field equations, which now reduce to k P˙ = 2Pµ 0 + P0µ − µ 000 , J J 2π J ˙ 0 0 0 0 k 000 5 0 3 0 J = 2J µJ + J µJ + 2PµP + P µP − µP + iψµψ + iψ µψ , (4.9) 2π 2 2 5 9π 3 k ψ˙ = ψµ 0 + ψ0µ − P2µ + P00µ + 5P0µ 0 + 5Pµ 00 − µ 0000 , 2 J J 2k ψ 2 ψ ψ ψ 2π ψ have to hold in the asymptotic region, while the parameters of the asymptotic symmetries fulfill the following conditions
0 0 Y˙ = µJ Y − µJ Y, ˙ 0 0 0 0 9π 3 00 0 0 3 00 T = µJ T − µJ T + µP Y − µP Y + iµψEP − iµψ E + 2iµψ E − iµψE ,(4.10) k 2 2 3 3 E˙ = µ Y 0 − µ 0Y − µ 0E + µ E0 , 2 ψ ψ 2 J J which are needed in order to ensure that the global charges are conserved.1 Following the Regge-Teitelboim approach [30], the variation of the canonical generators is found to be generically given by k δQ [λ] = − hλδaφi dφ , (4.11) 2π ˆ
1Since global symmetries are necessarily contained within the asymptotic ones, these results provide an interesting alternative path to find the explicit expression of the Killing vector-spinors. See appendixB.
– 8 – which by virtue of (4.4) and (4.5), up to an arbitrary constant without variation, integrate as Q [T,Y, E] = − (T P + Y J − iEψ) dφ . (4.12) ˆ It is worth highlighting that the global charges are manifestly independent of the radial coordinate r. Therefore, the boundary can be located at an arbitrary fixed value r = r0, and it corresponds to a timelike surface with the topology of a cylinder.
Since the Poisson brackets fulfill {Q [λ1] ,Q [λ2]} = δλ2 Q [λ1], the algebra of the canon- ical generators can be directly obtained from the transformation law of the fields in (4.7). 1 P inφ Expanding in Fourier modes, X = 2π n Xne , the nonvanishing Poisson brackets read
i {Jm, Jn} = (m − n) Jm+n , 3 i {Jm, Pn} = (m − n) Pm+n + km δm+n,0 , 3m i {Jm, ψn} = − n ψm+n , (4.13) 2 1 9 X i {ψ , ψ } = 3m2 − 4mn + 3n2 P + P P + km4δ , m n 2 m+n 4k m+n−q q m+n,0 q where the modes of the generators ψm are labeled by (half-)integers when the fermions fulfill (anti)periodic boundary conditions. It is then clear that, with respect to Jm, the conformal weight of the generators Pm and ψn, is given by 2 and 5/2, respectively. Note that the subset spanned by Jm and Pm corresponds to the BMS3 algebra of General Relativity with the same central extension, and hence (4.13) stands for its hypersymmetric extension that is manifestly nonlinear. It is useful to perform the following shift in the generators: k Pn → Pn − δn,0 , (4.14) 2 so that the algebra now reads
i {Jm, Jn} = (m − n) Jm+n , 2 i {Jm, Pn} = (m − n) Pm+n + km m − 1 δm+n,0 , 3m i {Jm, ψn} = − n ψm+n , (4.15) 2 1 9 X i {ψ , ψ } = 6m2 − 8mn + 6n2 − 9 P + P P m n 4 m+n 4k m+n−q q q 9 1 +k m2 − m2 − δ , 4 4 m+n,0 in agreement with the result that has been recently anticipated in [6]. Indeed, dropping the nonlinear terms in (4.15), when the fermions fulfill antiperiodic boundary conditions, the wedge algebra, which is spanned by the subset of {Jm, Pm, ψn} with m = ±1, 0 and n = ±3/2, ±1/2, reduces to the hyper-Poincaré algebra in eq. (4.2).
– 9 – It can also be seen that the hyper-BMS3 algebra (4.13) turns out to be a subset of a precise Inönü-Wigner contraction of the direct sum of the W(2,4) algebra with its hyper- symmetric extension W 5 . This is the main subject of the next subsection. (2, 2 ,4)
4.1 Flat limit of the asymptotic symmetry algebra from the case of negative cosmological constant
It has been recently shown that the asymptotic symmetries of three-dimensional hypergrav- ity with negative cosmological constant are spanned by two copies of the classical limit of the WB2 algebra [9]. This algebra is also known as W 5 and corresponds to the hyper- (2, 2 ,4) symmetric extension of W(2,4) [31], [32]. The hypergravity theory that was discussed in [9] possesses the minimum number of hypersymmetries in each sector, so that the gauge group is given by OSp (1|4)⊗OSp (1|4). In analogy with the case of three-dimensional supergrav- ity [33], one may say that the theory aforementioned corresponds to the N = (1, 1) AdS3 hypergravity. In this sense, there are two inequivalent minimal locally hypersymmetric ex- tensions of General Relativity with negative cosmological constant, which correspond to the (1, 0) and the (0, 1) theories. It is then simple to verify that both minimal theories possess the same vanishing cosmological constant limit, and hence in order to proceed with the analysis we will consider the (0, 1) one, whose gauge group is given by Sp (4) ⊗ OSp (1|4). According to [9], the asymptotic symmetry algebra of the minimal hypergravity theory with negative cosmological constant then corresponds to W(2,4)⊕W 5 . (2, 2 ,4) The classical limit of the W 5 algebra reads (2, 2 ,4)
κ i {L , L } = (m − n) L + m3δ , m n m+n 2 m+n,0 i {Lm, Un} = (3m − n) Um+n , 3m i {L , Ψ } = − n Ψ , m n 2 m+n 1 i {U , U } = (m − n) 3m4 − 2m3n + 4m2n2 − 2mn3 + 3n4 L m n 2232 m+n 3 1 2 2 2 3π (6) + (m − n) m − mn + n Um+n − (m − n)Λ (4.16) 6 κ m+n 72π κ − (m − n) m2 + 4mn + n2 Λ(4) + m7δ , 32κ m+n 2332 m+n,0 1 23π i {U , Ψ } = m3 − 4m2n + 10mn2 − 20n3 Ψ − iΛ(11/2) m n 223 m+n 3κ m+n π + (23m − 82n)Λ(9/2) , 3κ m+n 1 4 3π κ i {Ψ , Ψ } = U + m2 − mn + n2 L + Λ(4) + m4δ , m n m+n 2 3 m+n κ m+n 6 m+n,0 where the fermionic modes are labeled by (half-)integers in the case of (anti)periodic bound- (l) (l) −imφ ary conditions, and Λm = Λ e dφ stand for the mode expansion of the nonlinear ´
– 10 – terms, given by Λ(4) = L2 , (4.17) Λ(9/2) = LΨ , (4.18) 27 Λ(11/2) = L0Ψ , (4.19) 23 7 8π 295 2 22 25 Λ(6) = − UL − L3 + (L0) + L00L + iΨΨ0 . (4.20) 18 3κ 432 27 12
The bosonic generators Lm and Um span the W(2,4) subalgebra. In order to take the vanishing cosmological constant limit of the asymptotic symmetry algebra of the minimal theory, given by W(2,4)⊕W 5 , it is useful to perform the following (2, 2 ,4) change of basis: 1 P = L+ + L− , J = L+ − L− , n ` n −n n n −n r 1 + − 1 + − 6 + Wn = √ U + U , Vn = √ U − U , ψn = Ψ , (4.21) ` n −n ` n −n ` n − − + + + where Ln , Un stand for the generators of the (left) W(2,4) algebra, and Ln , Un , ψn span the (right) W 5 algebra. Therefore, rescaling the level according to κ = k`, in the large (2, 2 ,4) AdS radius limit, ` → ∞, one obtains that the nonvanishing brackets of the contracted algebra read
i {Jm, Jn} = (m − n) Jm+n , 3 i {Jm, Pn} = (m − n) Pm+n + km δm+n,0 ,
i {Jm, Wn} = (3m − n) Wm+n ,
i {Jm, Vn} = (3m − n) Vm+n , 1 4 3 2 2 3 4 i {Vm, Wn} = (m − n) 3m − 2m n + 4m n − 2mn + 3n Pm+n (4.22) 2232 3 2 2 π (6) 7 X − (m − n) Λ˜ − (m − n) m2 + 4mn + n2 P P k m+n 324k m+n−q q q k + m7δ , 2232 m+n,0 3m i {J , ψ } = − n ψ , m n 2 m+n 1 9 X i {ψ , ψ } = 3m2 − 4mn + 3n2 P + P P + km4δ , m n 2 m+n 4k m+n−q q m+n,0 q with 7 2π 295 2 11 Λ˜ (6) = − WP − P3 + (P0) + PP00 . (4.23) 12 k 288 9 It is then apparent that one can consistently get rid of the (conformal) spin-4 generators Vm, Wn, since the Inönü-Wigner contraction of W(2,4)⊕W 5 in eq. (4.22) possesses a (2, 2 ,4) subset spanned by {Pm, Jm, ψm}, which precisely corresponds to the hyper-BMS3 algebra in (4.13). Note that this is just a reflection of the fact that in the vanishing cosmological constant limit, the hypergravity theory can be consistently formulated without the need of spin-4 fields.
– 11 – 5 Hypersymmetry bounds
In the case of hypergravity with negative cosmological constant, it has been recently shown that the anticommutator of the generators of the asymptotic hypersymmetries implies the existence of interesting nonlinear bounds for the bosonic charges, that saturate for configu- rations that admit unbroken hypersymmetries [9]. In this section, following these lines, we explicitly show that this is also the case for hypergravity with asymptotically flat boundary conditions. In order to perform this task, it is useful to assume that the bosonic global charges are just determined by the zero modes. Indeed, as explained in [20], a generic bosonic configuration can be brought to the “rest frame” through the action of suitable elements of the asymptotic symmetry algebra. The searched for bounds can then be found along the same semi-classical reasoning as in the case of supergravity [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [22]. Hence, the fermionic bracket in (4.13) becomes an anticommutator, which in the rest frame, and for m = −n = p, reads
1 ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ 2 9π 2 k 4 ψpψ−p + ψ−pψp = 5p Pˆ + Pˆ + p ≥ 0 , (5.1) 2π 2k 2π with Pˆ0 = 2πPˆ. Thus, since the left-hand side of (5.1) is a positive-definite hermitian operator, in the classical limit, and for any value of the (half-)integer p, the energy has to fulfill the following bounds: 9π π p2 + P p2 + P ≥ 0 , (5.2) k k which are manifestly nonlinear. Note that for any configuration with P > 0, the bounds in (5.2) are automatically fulfilled, but never saturate. Indeed, this is the case of the cosmological spacetimes in (3.4), which goes by hand with the fact that they do not admit globally-defined Killing vector-spinors, and hence, break all the hypersymmetries. These bounds are also clearly fulfilled in the case of P = 0, and for fermions with periodic boundary conditions, the one for p = 0 is saturated. This relates to the fact that this class of configurations, that includes the null orbifold, possesses a single unbroken hypersymmetry spanned by a constant Killing vector-spinor. In the case of P < 0, the class of smooth configurations are the ones for which the holonomy of the connection around an angular cycle is trivial. This means that they are maximally (hyper)symmetric, and then possess four Killing vector-spinors. As explained in section 3.1, their energy is given by P = −kj2/π, and the bounds in (5.2) then reduce to